ALL five killed when a whale-watching boat sank off coast of western Canada were British.
The development came as officials were "urgently" checking with Canadian authorities whether any Britons are among 27 people on board a whale-watching boat which sank, killing at least five people.
The Foreign Secretary has confirmed five Britons were killed.
The boat operated by Jamie's Whaling Station, a local tour company, got into difficulty off the coast of British Columbia on Sunday afternoon local time.
A major search and rescue operation was launched, with the boat partly submerged eight nautical miles from Tofino, on Vancouver Island, according to reports.
Reports indicate capsized #Tofino vessel #LeviathanII is being towed in. It is now a crime scene. https://t.co/PAh6MEVvL3
— HBMG (@TheNewOcean) October 26, 2015
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: "It is with deep sadness that I can confirm five British nationals have lost their lives when the whale watching boat they were on sank off Western Canada on Sunday.
"My thoughts are with the family and friends of all those affected by this terrible accident."
He said consular staff in British Columbia were supporting the family members of those who have died and were in close contact with the Canadian authorities.
Earlier a spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "Following the incident in Tofino on October 25, we are urgently seeking information from the local authorities and stand ready to provide consular support to any British nationals involved."
Lt Commander Desmond James of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre said the military agency's search had concluded with five people dead, 21 rescued and one person missing.
It was a clear and sunny day when the 20-metre Leviathan II, operated by Jamie's Whaling Station, made a mayday call late on Sunday afternoon, local time, in the tourist community which is a popular destination for whale watchers on the country's west coast.
John Forde, who runs The Whale Centre, another whale-watching operation, said he did not know how the boat could have sunk.
"Over the course of a season and years we take out thousands and thousands of people on these trips in conditions similar today. I have no idea what the issue was or what actually happened," he said.
Jamie's Whaling Station was one of the first of its kind off Vancouver Island and had been around for many years, Mr Forde said.
In a statement on the Jamie's Whaling Station website, owner Jamie Bray wrote: "It has been a tragic day. Our entire team is heartbroken over this incident and our hearts go out to the families, friends and loved ones of everyone involved.
"We are doing everything we can to assist our passengers and staff through this difficult time.
"We are co-operating with investigators to determine exactly what happened.
"In the meantime, we want to extend our most sincere thank you to the first responders, rescue personnel, and everyone from Tofino and the local First Nations communities who assisted with the response efforts.
"We will provide further updates when information becomes available."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel